Reading Hedges - Farm labor working in the shadows

In the book Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco tell the stories about the effects of capitalism out of control and the consequences of what they call "sacrifice zones", that is, those parts of the United States which have been devastated by corporate practices. The first sacrifice zone described was the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and the consequence of genocide on Native Americans. The second sacrifice zone described was Camden, NJ, the poorest city in the United States. The third sacrifice zone was the mountain top removal and the devastation of the Appalachian mountains in West Virginia, and the fourth sacrifice zone is the farm workers in Imokallee, Florida.

Hedges writes, "The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that the agriculture industry has a death rate seven times higher than the average rate for most industries." The farm workers perform grueling work for 10, 12 hours a day in the fields often covered in pesticides in sometimes extreme weather conditions. These workers are paid very low wages which allow only the most subsistent living, if that, often sleeping on the woods or incarcerated by crew leaders in confined accommodations so they cannot flee.

Here, in Brockport, we eat our cheap tomatoes in February because of the oppressive conditions which the farm laborers in Florida endure. We also see these folks when they come north in the summer to work in our fields here in the Brockport area. Tom Rivers does an excellent job documenting their work here in his book, Farm Hands, which is available at the Lift Bridge Book Shop.

While our nation has been very inhospitable to undocumented farm laborers, the fact is their labor is needed if we are going to continue to eat cheap produce. Americans are huge hypocrites when they stigmatize and mistreat the very people who do the hard, dirty work, they are not willing or are unable, because of their poor physical conditioning, to do themselves.

Farm workers deserve better working conditions, benefits, and most importantly, to be treated with dignity. Here in Brockport they live in fear, and last year the Bienvenido celebration was canceled for the first time in many years, because of fear of border patrol harassment were the farm workers to gather in public.

Congress has yet to pass a humane and viable law to manage the millions of undocumented but badly needed and hard working immigrants among us. We should promote and affirm justice, equity, and compassion in our human relations and when it comes to farm laborers, we have failed because of economic pressures which, for the most part, are invisible to most Brockporters.

Let us become aware of the plight of farm workers and celebrate their hard work and gifts which make our quality of life possible eating fresh vegetables all year around.